


Vivents Mortis

by elliemoran



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Beheading, Blood, Blood and Gore, Child Eren Yeager, Child Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Death, Gore, M/M, Parent Death, Violence, Zombies, guardian levi (shingeki no kyojin), lots of beheading, seriously
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-02
Updated: 2014-09-21
Packaged: 2018-02-15 20:44:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2242920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elliemoran/pseuds/elliemoran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi is pretty sure he's about thirteen, maybe fourteen, and he's been taking care of himself for most of that time. He's good at surviving. Which isn't all that easy when he lives in a post-apocalyptic world full of zombies and territorial gangs that don't like it when he appropriates their stuff. </p><p>So when he's suddenly landed with a tiny little kid named Eren, he's not entirely sure what to do with him.  </p><p>But somehow, he knows he's going to do everything he can to make sure Eren survives too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First impressions: Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been listening endlessly to the Zankyou no Terror OST all week, and I felt the need to write a thing all post-apocalyptical. This zombie AU is something I'd been planning out for a while, so it seemed like appropriate timing.
> 
>    
> Please do let me know what you think, here or on Tumblr (I'm afternoonteawithme over there)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic will be structured episodically, so this chapter is the first part of the 'first impressions' episode, which will be mostly a complete story within itself, and then I'll go on to the next episode with these guys. It's my first time doing something like this, so hopefully it works out!  
> 

Clear morning sunlight crept slowly through the city, reflecting so brightly off of the sleek high rise buildings gathered at its center that it was hard to distinguish the occasional black square where a few of the window panes had given up and come crashing down.

Levi carefully picked his way along the center of the wide street, the bottoms of his sneakers crunching as they ground fragments of glass to powder against the cement. The area must have been hit hard by looters – he couldn’t see many intact windows anywhere close to ground level. Time and nature had turned the glass shards they’d left behind to a sparkling crystal coating on the road.

He avoided the worst of it, where the weeds that sprouted through wide cracks in the ground had gathered windblown piles of the stuff, and kept his head up, eyes constantly scanning, tuning out the birds that chattered down at him from their nests lining the buildings along either side of the street.

It was impossible to be completely silent with the roads like this, but that meant that he’d be able to hear anyone else coming his way – hopefully before they heard him.

He hadn’t planned on stopping, even after he realized how close to the city he’d be passing. He had more than enough supplies to last for another week’s worth of travelling, and he wasn’t familiar enough with this area to know which territories to avoid.

But the hardware store he’d found last night had had a nearly untouched stock room, and there hadn't been even a hint of light anywhere in the city from the moment the sun went down until morning. As far as he could tell, the place was empty of human life.

The lack of the dead was a little worrying though.

A hint of motion from the shadowed depths of an exposed shop nearby had him going still, his fingers tensing around the grip of the pistol holstered at his hip.

And then he relaxed as he saw the cat, tip of its striped brown tail twitching as it sat perched on top of a counter at the front of what had once been a beauty parlor. The cat calmly met his eyes for a full minute, and then shifted its gaze to a particularly loud bird swooping down low over the street.

Levi moved on. The cat’s lack of alarm either meant that it was used to humans, or that it wasn’t. He kept his hand on his gun.

He turned a corner, searching the fading signs over the old ground floor storefronts. His coat was getting snug, starting to hamper his movements, and the leather was thin enough now that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to patch the elbows anymore. It was hard enough to find a decent leather jacket in his size, and most of those were pink or green or some strange pattern that was worse than useless. He’d hoped it would last until summer, but the early spring cold was holding out better than the jacket.

And if he could find a decent bookstore that hadn’t yet been ransacked, maybe he’d make a point of coming this way a little more often.

He’d just spotted a likely department store, with variously sized mannequins just visible through the dirt caked onto the miraculously unbroken window, when a loud engine broke the silence.

Ducking, Levi slipped between two rusted cars on the side of the road. The sound wasn’t too far away, and coming closer - maybe fifty yards now.

He flattened himself to the ground, watching carefully from beneath the car’s bumper. A second later, an open jeep barreled past, two men standing in the back with rifles braced on the roll bar, another leaning out from where the passenger side door should be.

Holding his breath, Levi focused on keeping as still as possible. The men were looking at something ahead that he couldn’t see, but despite his small size Levi wasn’t well hidden enough that they wouldn’t spot him if they glanced his way.

They didn’t. He exhaled softly as they passed out of view, and slid back and sideways, glass scraping beneath his body as he tucked himself further under the car, trying to keep as much of his silhouette in line with the tires as he could.

Loud, rapid gunfire echoed through the streets. Levi frowned. From the sound of it, those two rifles on the top of the car had been machine guns. Which meant these people wanted someone very dead – he could last for a year at least off the sale of one belt’s worth of that ammo.

It sounded like the engine had cut off just past the intersection, and some of the gunshots were coming from a slightly different angle – as if whoever they were shooting at was returning fire. 

He shifted his eyes back to the open storefronts behind him. If he could get inside without being spotted, or hit by a stray bullet, he might be able to find a back door onto a less exposed side street, or at least make his way up to the rooftops and travel out of the city that way.

Slowly, he inched backwards, wedging his slim body in between the tire and the curb. He’d just started up into a crouch when the measured sound of a large number of feet pounding the ground in unison had him flattening himself back down.  The cement beneath his hands shook as watched ten pairs of heavy boots run past on the opposite side of the car.

As the last disappeared from view, he raised his head and edged forward enough to get a glimpse of their backs. They were all wearing the same tan camouflage as the first set.  

_Well, shit._

Levi forced back the frustration bubbling up in his chest. he'd been stupid. He should have just kept to his original plan, or at least watched the place for a few days before heading in. He knew better than to just go wandering into territory he knew nothing about.

And now  he’d gotten himself mixed up in some kind of turf war.

He slid back into the shadow of the car’s tire, giving up any chance of escaping, for the moment.

Whoever these people were, they had an operational jeep, enough money and weaponry that they were willing to use two machine guns at once, and at least _thirteen_ combat trained personnel, not including the driver that he hadn’t seen. He’d never come across a group that well-armed before. Even the largest settlements he'd traded with didn’t have that many dedicated soldiers, and what they had was usually a mismatched mess. He doubted any of them had ever even thought about running in formation. And at least a few would have stabbed him if he'd said anything about wearing matching clothes. 

He definitely couldn’t assume this lot would be friendly, either. He needed to get out of the city before anyone realized he’d been here.

Dropping his head, he rested his cheek on the rough ground as he steadied his breathing. He wouldn’t allow himself to panic, and kicking his own ass for being so stupid would have to wait until later. 

When he'd forced everything else away, he closed his eyes - useless for the moment - and focused on using his ears and the shuddering ground to pinpoint everyone around him.

The rattle of the machine guns had stopped, though he could still hear sporadic gunfire. From the start, Levi hadn't heard shouting, or any voices at all. He hadn't expected to, but it would have been helpful.

And it was yet another sign that these people were well trained and used to combat.

The crack of one last shot echoed off of the walls, and then the only sound left was the measured, slightly too fast thumping of his own heart. 

When it came, finally, the crunch of booted feet on glass seemed almost as loud as a bullet. He heard the murmur of voices heading his way - they weren't even trying to be quiet anymore. 

Levi opened his eyes. He got to his feet and slipped the slim knife he used for close combat out of its strap on his bicep. It wouldn’t do much good against a large group, but it would give him a chance if one of them spotted him. 

If they were talking, they weren't on alert anymore. They’d be more likely to look around now. He was too exposed and in a bad position to handle any threats. But now he knew where they were.

Hunched over nearly double, his feet moving over the ground as lightly as possible, he slid forward towards the last car before the cross road. He'd noticed the truck when he'd first started down this street. It had likely already been a rusted heap long before it had been abandoned here - three of the tires were completely flat, and the back rested solidly on the ground.

The voices were getting close when he pressed his back against the tailgate, knife half hidden at his hip. He was in shadow, and the truck was slightly angled away from the road. Unless they specifically looked his way he should be well enough hidden.

He caught occasional syllables, a loud laugh. Footsteps merged with something larger, almost a sliding sound, and then he watched the jeep slowly pass his hiding spot, pushed by a tangle of tan covered soldiers with rifles strapped to their backs.

It was oddly reassuring - the first sign that these guys' resources weren’t limitless.  

Between the jeep pushers and the ones trailing just behind, he counted twelve. All adult men, as far as he could tell, with close cropped hair and thick, muscular builds. They moved out of sight, and then gradually out of hearing. 

Still he waited, his breathing slow and even, his muscles loose. They tightened - almost imperceptible - at the crunch of more boots moving over the glass covered road.

Two men walked by. These ones were different. Both had longer hair, touching the collar of their shirts, and large guns holstered at either side of their waists. Beneath the rifles slung over their backs they each also wore long, flat blades stretching across from their hip to their shoulders, the hilts poking out by their heads. 

They wore the same tan and beige as all the others, but theirs was spattered by the deep red of still-wet blood. 

One held a large, black box with a long antenna up to his ear. He spoke softly, but he was close enough that Levi could hear him clearly. The words didn’t help much though - the man kept repeating something about ‘it’ never having been there, and the information being wrong. It was enough that Levi figured whatever these people were fighting over wasn’t done with yet.

Their footsteps faded away. Levi waited. He’d already seen more people than he’d originally counted, but he couldn’t be sure there weren't more. 

A little over an hour later, long after the birds had started up again, he finally moved.

Ignoring the sting in his muscles after holding his position for so long, he shifted away from the truck. Keeping low and constantly scanning the area, he slipped around the corner until he could stand pressed against the building.

At the opposite corner of the intersection, on the pale, sandstone steps leading up to a matching building, two red soaked bodies lay next to their heads.

Levi hesitated. He should leave, head back the way he had come, go back to territory he was familiar with. He needed to get to a safe place before nightfall.

But along with the severed heads, he could see what looked like the butt of a large rifle sticking out over the top step. And a little further back he was fairly certain the two lumps resting against the wall were very full packs.

He spotted a second gun lying closer to the door, and blew out a long breath.

Rifle ammo was valuable. If there was enough there, he might even be able to hole up somewhere for the whole of next winter. The attacking group might have stripped the bullets out and left the guns, but Levi didn’t think so. This hadn’t been any kind of raid for supplies.

Decision made, he jolted into action. In this state, with his adrenalin running, he found it easier to keep from making any noise as he darted across the road. Memorizing how his feet were moving so he could repeat it later when he left, Levi circled around, going well past the sandstone building before carefully crossing again, and then coming back through the overgrown park beside the building.

He was in luck. A cracked ramp, completely hidden by the high wall at the side of the stairs, took him all the way up and came out at the top just behind the fat pillars stretching up to the roof high above. Knowing his dark brown jacket would stand out harshly against the building, Levi went for speed as he quickly grabbed one of the packs and slung it over his shoulder before grabbing the closest gun and slipping inside the wide open doors.

Another body lay in the center of the lobby, though he had to let his eyes adjust to the shadows before he spotted the head lying against the wall a little distance away.

Something had happened inside this place, and not just recently. The wide staircase leading up to the second floor had been blown out at some point, leaving two steep ramps of jagged metal bars and rubble to frame the gaping hole at the center. Black soot darkened the polished stone floors and ceiling, and fresh blood stains blended with old on the wall behind the disembodied head.

Spotting a third pack, Levi hefted it up and moved around the edges of the room. If he had time, once he finished he’d get the other pack from outside, but both of these were nearly two-thirds his height, and heavy. There was no way he could take everything, especially when he was still in most likely hostile territory.

Glancing around the dark lobby, he found what he was looking for in a back corner. A pair of doors leading off to large restrooms. 

He dragged the two packs into the women’s bathroom – there were more places to hide, and unless they were looking for a female in particular, most combat types tended to search men’s bathrooms first.

The rifle still had bullets loaded. As he pulled them out, and started going through the first bag, he calculated how much time to allow himself. He was already pushing his luck, and the deeper into the packs he went, the more he was convinced he needed to get away as soon as possible.

He’d never seen so much valuable stuff in one place; there was actual money nestled in with the bullets, clothes, and rations, and high end medical supplies – including some labeled as things that he’d never heard of before. There were even razors still wrapped in plastic, and small sealed bottles of what looked like real shampoo, conditioner, and even shaving foam.  

 _That_ would get him a leather jacket, if he found someone with one to trade.

These people were not something he’d ever dealt with before. The one side, wealthy enough to have all this in the first place, and then the other, wealthy enough to just leave it all behind.

When he opened a side pocket on one of the sacks and found an unopened box of actual soap he knew he wasn’t leaving until he went through as many of these bags as he could find, no matter the risk.

He tucked all the first aid supplies into the flat, triangular leather sack he wore on his back, along with the toiletries that would fit, and the cash he divided between several of the slim pouches attached to the straps he wore all over his body. It was a system that let him use his small size to the best advantage, and kept any would-be thieves from easily being able to take his things.

The rest he divided between the two packs, stuffing the one he’d taken from the lobby full of everything he wouldn’t take. He hitched the emptier bag onto his back and carefully slipped back out of the restroom.

Setting the full pack back against the wall, he carefully studied the remains of the staircase. As he’d thought, he could see footholds through the rubble leading up, as if many people had worn a path over time.  

Glancing outside, he estimated it was just past noon. He’d give himself another few hours, and then he’d leave.

 

_____

 

Levi easily found the next four bodies, all properly beheaded. Each was still wearing full packs. He didn't want to have to wrestle the packs back onto the bodies so he didn’t bother taking them off.

He had to be careful not to get the still tacky blood on anything though.

There was more soap, though none of it was sealed. Which wasn’t a problem, really. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to bring himself to open that first box in any case – he’d never seen anything like it.

He stood up from the last body, hefting his nearly full bag onto his back as he climbed up to the next floor. Only the first staircase had been damaged, there was very little damage to anything above that. All he’d found so far were offices, and the lack of broken windows meant that everything was remarkably undisturbed. The only sign that the place had been abandoned was a thick layer of dust and the occasional piles of chewed up paper mixed with mouse droppings in baskets on the desks.

So far, the bodies had all been close to the stairways, as if they’d come running when they’d heard the gunshots, so when he reached the last step on the fourth floor and didn’t find any more, he was fairly certain that was it.

Even so, he'd search this last floor, and then go back down for that last pack and rifle outside.  

He wasn’t expecting anything but more offices, so when he came to the end of a hall and found a solid steel door that had been broken off its hinges he went on alert. Using a gun was too risky, he couldn't be certain there was no one close enough to hear, even muffled inside the building. He pulled out both his small knife and a larger one he kept strapped along his thigh.

Slowly, he crept forward. The hallway had once been lined by glass walls, all of which had been smashed from this side. It had taken a great deal of force – the stuff was coated in something that kept it from breaking into pieces. Large sections of fractured glass lay on the ground inside the rooms.

He stepped over the remaining half of a second steel door, and found himself in a large white lab, full of computers and oversized tables, and pieces of equipment that Levi was sure his friend Hanji would drool over, though he had no clue what they did. There were no windows to the outside, and he glanced up, wondering why it was so bright.

Flinching back, he pressed himself against the wall, suddenly feeling far too exposed. The place was huge and open, the walls layered with balconies leading up all the way to the clear glass ceiling high above. 

Countless doors led off from this level and each of the layers above. From where he stood, it looked like every single one of them had been smashed to splinters.

Levi didn't think the men who had walked past him in the street were the ones responsible for this. The violent rage that he’d felt in the way those windows had been smashed in the hallway behind him, and in how these ordinary wooden doors had all been obliterated felt far stronger that anything he’d sensed from those people.

He eased away from the wall, still keeping to the edges as he worked his way across the room to where he thought he’d seen a flash of red, not entirely pleased when he found he'd been right. 

Another body lay on the ground at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the first balcony.

Levi hesitated, staring down. Like the others, this one was missing a head, and still wore a large pack, but this body was smaller, with no visible weapons apart from a thin knife still nestled in the belt wrapped around their slim waist.  

He glanced to the side, and felt his gut clench as he realized he’d been right. A head lay on the ground a little way into the closest office, and beneath the matted brown hair he could see the unmistakable features of a very young woman, not too much older than him.

Taking a deep breath, ignoring the way the blood suddenly seemed to coat his lungs, Levi knelt down and started going through her pack. As he worked his way through, he checked the neck of every shirt, every possible item that might have a name on it. As he’d expected it didn’t take long for him to find it.

 _Ilse Langnar_. Levi committed it to memory, as he’d done with the men downstairs. He didn’t know which side of this fight had been the ‘good’ side, but it didn’t matter.   

As he repacked his bag for what he’d decided was the last time, Levi heard a quiet scrape from the room beside him.

His knife was instantly back in his hand.

He didn’t think it was one of the tan covered team – he’d have been dead already if they’d been able to stay hidden this long. It had been too heavy for a mouse. Maybe a raccoon or some larger animal that had somehow managed to get this far into the building.

It came again, softer, but he thought he heard something like a mew along with it.

A flash of the cat from earlier popped into his head. He knew it was stupid, but the thought wouldn’t go away. What if something had gotten hit by a stray bullet – he’d seen bullet holes in the walls wherever he’d found bodies, and knew the attackers hadn’t worried about keeping their aim accurate.

He stepped forward, over Ilse’s head, and crept towards the back of the room.

This was an office, though it had the unmistakable sterile look of a lab too. Filing cabinets lined the walls, along with shelves of books with incomprehensible titles. A large window filled the wall behind the desk, still unbroken, and it lit the room well enough that he could see there was no animal, or person, anywhere.

He’d half turned away when he heard it again. Dropping to a crouch, he eased towards the back corner. It wasn’t until he was nearly on top of it that he saw the last bookshelf was slightly at an angle, not quite in line with the wall.

Sheathing his smaller knife, he used his free hand to pull the bookshelf towards him. As it softly rotated back to land with a thump against a filing cabinet, light from behind Levi streamed into a tiny square cubicle.

He found himself looking at another dead woman, slumped against the wall. Blood stained most of what he could see of her, the majority of which he assumed came from the two dark bullet wounds high on her chest. 

A tiny boy, not much more than a baby, stood beside her. He stared up at Levi, his hand clenched in the fabric covering her shoulder, very much alive.


	2. First impressions: Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've never written anything like this before, and it was hard, and I ended up rewriting the first part of this chapter three times. I tried to strike a balance between sentimental and realistic and also a little gross (but not too). Which is kinda what this story is all about but we'll see how that goes.
> 
> I'm pretty sure I have typos and grammar mistakes, please forgive me and I hope you enjoy this anyway because I need to sleep some before I do any more editing.

 

The kid was tiny. Beneath a layer of dirt and smeared blood, Levi could see dusky skin several shades darker than the woman’s, with none of her unnatural paleness from blood loss. The eyes staring up at Levi were clear, free of pain. It didn’t look like he was hurt.

Tears had left tracks in the mess staining the boy’s face, but he wasn’t crying anymore.

Round green eyes dropped to the large knife still in Levi’s hand, widening until they somehow seemed to take up the whole of his face. His fingers went white as he tightened his grip on the woman’s sleeve, wedging himself in tightly against her side. He hadn’t made a sound yet.

It was the woman who moaned.

Every muscle in Levi’s body went rigid, his breath sticking in his lungs.

But even as the soft sound faded away Levi was already forcing himself to exhale. He relaxed, slightly, as his eyes flicked quickly over her wrist, and knuckles, the ridge of collarbone left exposed through the neck of her shirt. Even if she’d somehow been dead long enough to turn, her skin still stretched tightly over the bones and joints beneath - there was none of the swelling that would have meant Levi and the kid were already in trouble.

Besides, he’d never yet seen a dead person wake up still that bloodless shade of blue-grey. Most of them flushed an almost healthy looking pink as they bloated up. He’d seen a few go purple - like an all-over bruise, and he’d heard they sometimes turned a diseased sort of yellow. But they never stayed grey.

Unless it was some new strain he’d never heard of before.

He shoved away the thought, but kept his wrist loose and his knife ready as he crouched down and shuffled into the little room, reaching out to check the woman’s pulse.

The jab of a sharp blade under his chin had him going completely still.

Slowly lifting his arms into the air, Levi evenly met the woman’s now open eyes. She didn’t seem to be able to focus on his face too well, and the hand holding the knife against his skin shook harshly, but the fierce intensity in her expression gave Levi no doubt that she’d slide the thing into his neck if he wasn’t careful.

He’d braced his muscles to jerk free when her other hand came up, gripping his shirt collar and yanking him in towards her.

Off balance, Levi caught himself against the wall behind her head. His knife hand was already slicing down towards her throat when he saw her gaze clear, just a little, and he stopped the blade just short of cutting into skin.

She wasn’t dead, yet.

This close, he could see the thin strip of green around her dilated pupils. She stared back at him, unblinking, the whites of her eyes red with leaky veins. She seemed to be trying to study his face, though he wasn’t sure how much she was actually taking in.

Evidently it was enough. She unclenched her fist from his shirt, letting the knife drop to the carpeted floor as she fumbled with something in her lap.

Levi pushed off from the wall. He was shifting back to a crouch when she shoved a soft leather sack at his chest with surprising strength, knocking him back. As soon as he regained his balance Levi shuffled another full foot away, well out of her reach. But she wasn’t paying him any more attention.

Very, very slowly, she turned her head towards the boy beside her.

Levi heard the boy gasp, and then watched as his face scrunched up, eyes filling with tears.

The woman raised her hand, painfully stretching it across her torso to cover the tiny fist still clenched in her shirt, and tugged it free.

The kid didn’t seem to understand. He stared back at her as she pushed him towards Levi, tugging against the hand still tightly gripping his. Gradually, his movements grew more and more frantic, until he was struggling in earnest with her, trying to get back to her side.

Levi dropped to his knees. He set the bag and his knife down and leaned forward until he could wrap an arm around the tiny shoulders.

“Hey, kid. Stop.”

Completely ignoring Levi’s words, the boy twisted against his restraining arm and the hand the woman was holding against the center of his chest, his free hand clawing at the fingers still wrapped around his wrist.

“Stop. You’re hurting her. “

He didn’t know if it was his words, or maybe the way the woman’s mouth twisted as the struggle jostled her back against the wall, but the kid jerked away, his body thunking solidly into Levi’s chest.

The woman arms dropped to her side and she seemed to deflate, somehow sinking into herself.  The kid’s hands came up, tiny nails digging into Levi’s restraining arm as he pressed back against Levi.

An uncomfortable rasp filled the small room and a trail of deep red blood slid sluggishly down from the corner of the woman’s mouth, but the eyes that drifted over the boy’s face suddenly seemed remarkably clear.

Levi thought she smiled, just a little, but the movement might not have been intentional.

When the harsh breathing stopped entirely, Levi expected the kid to go into another frenzy and head back to her side. He was more than a little surprised when he stayed right where he was. Instead, the tiny shoulders heaved as he clutched at Levi’s arm, burying his wet face against Levi’s skin.

Hesitating, Levi glanced at the woman, and back out through the hidden doorway. He blew out a long breath and sank down from his crouch, kneeling on the ground as the kid silently sobbed into his arm.

His free hand felt awkwardly out of place as he lifted it to pat the boy’s back. He wished Petra was here. Even Erwin, or Mike. He could think of a dozen people at least that would probably know just what to do to make the kid stop crying. 

As it was, all he could do was lend his arm as he tried to think of how they were going to get out of the city.

It wasn’t going to be easy, and they needed to hurry.

“Hey, k-” Levi stopped himself. He probably had a name. He pulled at the back of the kid’s jacket, and then the shirt beneath, very relieved to see the five letters clearly sewn into the collar in bright red thread.

_Eren J._

“Eren – Is that your name?”

The boy had jumped a little at the feel of Levi’s fingers on the back of his neck before going very still apart from the shuddering breaths that still shook his small frame. He did nothing else for long enough that Levi wondered if he could even understand him.

After all, he wasn’t even sure the kid was even old enough to speak. He’d thought that came before walking, but for all he knew it could be the other way around.

He was immensely relieved when the small head nodded against his arm.

“Good. Eren. We have to go now.”

Eren nodded again, finally letting go of Levi’s arm.

“Here.”  Ignoring the fat tears still following the dirty tracks on the kid’s face, Levi handed him the leather sack and then pushed him back out of the way.

Pressing himself against the wall, Eren clutched the bag to his chest. He watched silently as Levi sheathed his long knife, and stayed where he was when Levi shuffled back out of the room.

Finally able to stand up straight, Levi took a deep breath, taking a split second to clear his mind before easing over to the wall. Carefully, he took a quick glance out through the window.

There was no sign of anything human outside.  He could see the car he’d been hiding behind, and the store he hadn’t had a chance to search. The windows blocked out all noise, but he could see birds flying in lazy patterns over the buildings across the road, evidently unalarmed. 

The soldiers earlier had been invisible until he’d heard their engine, but he didn’t think they were using remote cameras to watch the building – not that he’d have been surprised if they had the capability – but it looked like they hadn’t known about the woman, or the boy, and Levi hadn’t kept himself all that hidden when he’d gone into the building.

He glanced back toward the bookcase, still angled away the wall.

Still, this wasn’t going to be easy.

The kid was still in the same spot when Levi shuffled back in, staring down at the bag – nearly the same size as him – carefully not looking at the woman.

Levi pressed fingers to her neck, and then checked her wrists, making completely certain there was no pulse. He found nothing. She was definitely dead this time.

As gently as he could, he shifted her around until he could slide his arms beneath hers and drag her out of the room. There was no way he’d be able to create enough force to get her head off in the cramped little cubicle. When he had her out far enough that she could lay flat on the ground and he could stand up straight, Levi pulled a long knife – the longest he could fit on his body without slowing himself down - out from beneath the sack on his back. This one was useless in a fight, but that wasn’t what he used it for.

As he stood over the woman, bracing the knife over his head, he let himself think for one second of not doing this. If he left her as she was the soldiers would never know anyone had been here after them. It would help him get a little further away with the kid- with Eren, if they decided to chase after him.

There was always the chance that she wasn’t infected.

He hated this part. 

And then, as always, he pushed the thoughts away and brought the knife down with all his strength.

Her head separated cleanly. Levi exhaled in relief. He’d built up a lot of muscle for his size, but he still didn’t have the strength to decapitate people easily every time. But it was the only way to keep someone from turning, and no one wanted any more zombies around.

It wasn’t until he was wrestling her body back into the room that he realized he should have probably made sure Eren wasn’t watching first.

The kid was wide eyed, his breathing unsteady as he stared at Levi. 

Freezing in place with the woman’s headless body halfway through the door, Levi tried to think of something to say. Coming up with nothing, he tried to twist his lips in what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

Eren went pale, scooting further away along the wall.

_Ah, fucking hell._

Deciding to deal with the woman first, Levi got all of her back into the room, and then turned to kneel in front of Eren.

He was grateful the kid wasn’t screaming, at least. And he’d stopped crying. But they didn’t have time for this. If they were going to get to someplace safe, they needed to hurry.

Slowly, he held out his hand, ignoring the way Eren flinched away from it. “We have to go.”

Huge green eyes shifted from his hand to his face.

“Are you afraid of me?” _Stupid. Of course he is._

But somehow, that must have been the right thing to say. The boy blinked, and then shook his head firmly. The arms wrapped around the leather sack relaxed, just a little, but it was enough to have Levi breathing a sigh of relief.

“Good.” He kept his hand where it was. “Then let’s go.”

Slowly, Eren reached out and wrapped his hand around Levi’s fingers.

Levi pulled him out of the room, and then slid the bookshelf firmly back into place.

The kid already had a death grip on his hand as they walked across the room, but Levi could feel his bones grinding against each other as they stepped past Ilse’s head.

Still, Levi didn’t pull his hand away until they reached the large sack of all the things he’d already taken just outside the office.

He crouched down, stuffing the woman’s bag into the sack and then hitching it onto his back. Getting the kid out of here would be hard enough, but Levi would have to have something to trade if he wanted one of the better settlements to take him in. He couldn’t afford to leave all this stuff behind now, especially.

“Ready?”

The kid nodded. His face was still damp, and his lip trembled a little, but his chin jutted out and his eyes were fierce. Levi thought he could see traces of the same intensity he’d seen in the woman’s expression when she’d been holding a knife to his throat.

Before he even realized he was doing it, Levi found his hand reaching out to ruffle the boy’s messy brown hair, stopping only when Eren flinched away.

Levi dropped his hand. He got back to his feet and turned towards the door. “Come on.”  

After a moment, Eren followed after him.  He had to move at a half run, and Levi had to lift him over the broken steel door, but he kept up.

Levi had never dealt with kids much – they were always kept isolated, as far from anyone that had recent contact with the dead as possible. The older they got before being infected the more likely they were to survive that first fever. But from what little he’d seen, kids were noisy, and they whined a lot. This one did neither of those things. They were also dirty and they smelled bad. Both of _those_ characteristics fit Eren right now, but Levi figured it wasn’t fair to judge him on that just yet.

Eren scooted down the stairs, shaking his head when Levi reached out to help him - though he didn't flinch this time. He seemed to be doing fine until they reached the next floor and he saw the first of the men’s bodies. Levi caught him by the shoulder as he tripped, only just stopping him from landing face first.

Turning away from the unseeing, open eyes staring in their direction, Eren firmly grabbed ahold of Levi’s hand and pulled him on to the next flight of stairs.

Levi blinked, but left his hand where it was.

They clambered down the rubble to the lobby floor backwards, with Levi keeping just below Eren, ready to catch him. He was starting to think getting out of the city was going to go a lot more smoothly than he'd thought, right up until they reached the door to outside and he tried to pick Eren up.

He flat out refused.

“Kid-” Levi scrubbed his hands through his hair. “Eren. We need to move quickly.”

Holding his arms behind his back, Eren’s bottom lip poked out as he shook his head.

Levi studied him. “Will you be able to keep up?”

Eren nodded.

“Fine. But only until you slow us down.”

His eyes went wide and earnest as he nodded again, already reaching for Levi's hand and pulling him towards the door.

Levi let out a long breath, pushing back a mixture of amusement and irritation as he tugged Eren to a stop. “Wait, kid. I'll tell you when it's safe to go.”

The kid's face looked entirely unabashed as he stepped back. Levi had to wonder how someone that small could be so stubborn.

He edged outside. The road was clear, but Levi didn’t breathe easy until he had Eren out and down to the overgrown park at the bottom of the ramp - without any sudden engines starting up, or any gunfire.

Well hidden by the tall grass and the spreading bushes, Levi led Eren away from the road. The back of the park was surrounded by a tall, ornate, wrought iron fence.  It had obviously been more for decoration than anything, and as Levi had hoped, the bars were set far enough apart that he and Eren could both squeeze through. The bag was a problem, but Levi managed to climb up enough to drop it over to the far side.

As he dusted flakes of black paint off of Eren’s shirt and jacket, Levi glanced around.

They were between two houses on what had once been what looked like an affluent residential street with tall apartment buildings and a few oversized houses. The looters had been here too – apart from the gaping holes where windows and doors had once been, he could see telltale smoke stains spreading up over one of the apartment walls nearest him, and the black wreck of a burned out car in the road.

For now, they’d use the overgrown patches of grass and fenced in areas, anywhere with as little exposure as possible to make their way to the outskirts of town.

Levi stood back up, slinging the pack back on. He held out his hand to Eren, not entirely sure why he was so pleased when the kid took it without hesitation.

It was almost irritating.

“Keep up.”

Eren nodded, tightening his grip and starting off ahead of Levi again, in the wrong direction.

Levi sighed. He pulled him to a stop, and then turned him back around to face the right way.

 

__  

 

They made good time. The sun was just starting to edge down towards the horizon when they reached the treeline at the edge of the city limits. They’d actually seen a few zombies, in the distance, on their way out. Levi figured he must have chosen the occupied side of the city to sneak into that morning.

Levi stopped just past the last building, and then stumbled forward another step as Eren walked into the back of his legs.

He glanced back, his lips twisting up as he saw the kid’s eyelids drooping.

“Tired?”

Eren blinked, opening his eyes wide as he shook his head.

Levi only just stopped himself from rolling his own eyes, wondering if he’d really expected any other answer. Eren had refused to let himself be carried, no matter how many times Levi had asked. But he was obviously beyond exhausted now.

“Enough, kid.” Crouching down, Levi gathered Eren up, hitching the boy up onto his hip.

Half-heartedly struggling, Eren pushed away, but he was too tired to put much force into it.

“You’re slowing me down now.” The kid stopped fighting. As Levi stood back up, he patted the small back. “You did well. Sleep now.”

With a soft sigh, Eren went limp, nestled in fearlessly against Levi’s shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End of this first segment, I'm looking forward to showing Eren and Levi start to get to know each other in the next one.
> 
> I do have college, and work, and also three other things I'm writing, so I'm sorry I'm not posting on this as often as I'd like! But it'll come as fast as I can :)


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